Speaking in Lolcats, Take 2

Speaking in Lolcats, Take 2: What Literacy Means in teh Digital Era Stephen Downes November 25, 2009

Let’s look at some LOLcats http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/11/11/funny-pictures-toes-passing-in-5-4-3/

LOLCats combine familiar images with cultural context http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/11/11/funny-pictures-love-2/

Not so much celebrating popular culture as mocking it… http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/11/10/funny-pictures-later-years/

Correct spelling - even real words - is optional (but teh spelling mistakes have to make sense) http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/11/09/funny-pictures-i-triangulatered/

LOLcats have a characteristic spelling and syntax… It looks like txtspeek, it looks like l33tspeek, it mocks both http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/11/10/funny-pictures-dis-watr-is-wet/

Above all, LOLCats are commentary on everyday life http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/11/09/funny-pictures-same-since-decaff/

One thesis: That new media constitute a vocabulary, and then when people create artifacts, they are, literally, “speaking in LOLcats” It’s not just LOLCats, of course… http://www.flickr.com/photos/nobodyssweetheart/40898054 61

What do you suppose people are saying when they share this video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMAtxuCpsMU

What do you suppose the artist is saying? XKCD http://xkcd.com/530/

What do you suppose this artist is saying? Gaping Void http://www.gapingvoid.com/ http://thefuturebuzz.com/2009/01/26/50-viral-images-part-two/

The Accidental Tourist… 9-11 Tourist Guy http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blphoto-wtc.htm

Iconic… Hindenberg Tourist Guy http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blphoto-wtc.htm

Ironic… Kanye Interrupts Tourist Guy http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blphoto-wtc.htm

There are other languages … The first thesis is to be taken literally New media is a language The artifacts are words http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/3827/virusbignl0.jpg

Body language, for example … http://forum.xcitefun.net/body-language-actions-do-speak-louder-than-words-t13371.html

Clothing, uniforms, flags, drapes … http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogAssets/wayne-wall/12%20JUN%20Arab%20Clothing.jpg

Maps, diagrams, graphics… http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogAssets/wayne-wall/12%20JUN%20Arab%20Clothing.jpg

A second thesis: We can understand these languages within a logical/semiotic framework http://filserver.arthist.lu.se/kultsem/sonesson/ImatraCourseTx1.html

ACK!!!!! A What? http://filserver.arthist.lu.se/kultsem/sonesson/ImatraCourseTx1.html The semiotic function and the genesis of pictorial meaning, Göran Sonesson

A framework that describes:
what we are saying
how we are saying it
http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=IJP.085.1423A Charles Sanders Peirce http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/jzeman/peirces_theory_of_signs.htm

The same sort of thing underlies information theory… http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Consciousness_Studies/The_Philosophical_Problem/Machine_Consciousness Knowledge and the Flow of Information http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?mode=synopsis&bookkey=3642299

But more… The same sort of thing underlies inference and belief We understand the future in the same way we understand the past, by studying the signs - S. Downes http://www.downes.ca/post/20

Science as language, learning as conversation, knowledge as inference “ What if…”: The Use of Conceptual Simulations in Scientific Reasoning http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/1925728116-26233474/ftinterface~db=all~content=a788101161~fulltext=713240928

The Second Thesis, Part B This means getting beyond narrow text-based conceptions we have of media

Conceptions Like:
messages have a sender and a receiver
words get meaning from what they represent
truth is based on the real world
events have a cause, and causes can be known
science is based on forming and testing hypotheses
These, taken together, constitute, a static, linear, coherent picture of the world The world, as though it were a book, or a library Not everyone sees it that way

A frame for understanding new media Morris, Derrida and a little Lao Tzu We need this frame because (as Jukes said) if we aren’t looking for these things, we just won’t see them. Syntax Cognition Semantics Context Pragmatics Change

Syntax Forms: archetypes? Platonic ideals? Rules: grammar = logical syntax Operations: procedures, motor skills Patterns: regularities, substitutivity (eggcorns, tropes) Similarities: Tversky - properties, etc Not just rules and grammar

Semantics - Sense and reference (connotation and denotation) - Interpretation (Eg. In probability, Carnap - logical space; Reichenbach - frequency; Ramsey - wagering / strength of belief) - Forms of association: Hebbian, contiguity, back-prop, Boltzmann - Decisions and decision theory: voting / consensus / emergence theories of truth / meaning / purpose / goal http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tom7/csnotes/fall02/semantics.gif

Pragmatics
Speech acts (J.L. Austin, Searle) assertives, directives, commissives, expressives, declarations (but also - harmful acts, harassment, etc)
Interrogation (Heidegger) and presupposition
Meaning (Wittgenstein - meaning is use)
use, actions, impact

Cognition
description - X (definite description, allegory, metaphor)
definition - X is Y (ostensive, lexical, logical (necess. & suff conds), family resemblance - but also, identity, personal identity, etc
argument - X therefore Y - inductive, deductive, abductive (but also: modal, probability (Bayesian), deontic (obligations), doxastic (belief), etc.)
explanation - X because of Y (causal, statistical, chaotic/emergent)
reasoning, inference and explanation http://www.mkbergman.com/category/description-logics/

Context
- explanation (Hanson, van Fraassen, Heidegger)
- meaning (Quine); tense - range of possibilities
- vocabulary (Derrida); ontologies, logical space
Frames (Lakoff) and worldviews
placement, environment http://www.occasionbasedmarketing.com/what-it-is

Change
relation and connection: I Ching, logical relation
flow: Hegel - historicity, directionality; McLuhan - 4 things
- progression / logic -- games, for example: quiz&points, branch-and-tree, database
- scheduling - timetabling - events; activity theory / LaaN

21 st Century Skills Languages The ‘skills’ described by Jenkins – performance, simulation, appropriation, etc - are actually languages and should be understood in terms of these six dimensions http://spotlight.macfound.org/btr/entry/new_media_literacies/

21 st Century Languages Languages Elements Performance Simulation Appropriation Syntax Semantics Pragmatics Cognition Context Change

Example: Performance - Syntax Languages Elements Performance (the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery) (subcategories?) Syntax: - Forms - Rules - Operations - Patterns - Similarities - Presentation acting, method acting - “Know your lines” etc http://filmtvcareers.about.com/od/gettingthejob/a/GJ_Actor_Tips.htm - Stanislavski’s system (etc…) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislavski%27s_system - Ritual Performance (etc.) http://www.let.rug.nl/koster/papers/JHP.Koster2.Edit.pdf - Comparing Tales (etc.) http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/2343/

A third thesis: Fluency in these languages constitutes “21st century learning”

Describing “21st century learning”… (using the language of 20th century teaching) http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/documents/MILE_Guide_091101.pdf … as content and skills…

Focusing on tools… … is like focusing on pens, pencils, the printing press, instead of the Magna Carta, the Gutenberg Bible

Focusing on content… … is like focusing on what Magna Carta, the Gutenberg Bible said instead of what they did, what people did with them http://www.parliament.uk/actofunion/01_01_revolution.html

Papert - constructionism when people construct artifacts they are constructing media with which to think http://www.tpemagazine.com/2009/index.php/2009-06-23-12-22-23/22-issue03/44-constructionism-lego-education

How do we converse?
Who is in charge of that zone, who is in charge of that scaffolding
What vocabularies are we using in our digital materials? What vocabularies are publishers using? Are students using?
What languages do we model ?
http://englishinguiabasico.wordpress.com/2009/01/

The CCK09 Course… … is about learning as a conversation

Using the language of LOLCats… … to learn how to think and discover, and learn… http://ignatiawebs.blogspot.com/

Examples for Discussion… 1. Financial Literacy: language or skill? If ‘financial skills’ are a language, who talks, what is being said, and how are meaning and truth expressed? … PROMPT: Province to teach financial skills in schools… http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/article/719574--province-to-teach-money-skills-in-schools http://blogs.siliconindia.com/itsSHANKARGURU/Wealth_Generation__Management-bid-w4Fkd8Bs78142943.html

Examples for Discussion… 3. Critical Thinking and Text How do we apply the principles of critical thinking to non-text artifacts? * What is the author’s fundamental purpose? * What is the author’s point of view with respect to the issue? * What assumptions is the author making in his or her reasoning? * What are the implications of the author’s reasoning? * What information does the author use in reasoning through this issue? * What are the most fundamental inferences or conclusions in the article? * What are the most basic concepts used by the author? * What is the key question the author is trying to answer? The teleological theory of meaning http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=407700&c=1

Examples for Discussion… 4. The Farleyfile How do we keep data? How do we remember people we have met? Gist: A Farleyfile for the 21st century http://www.mcgeesmusings.net/2009/09/24/gist-a-farleyfile-for-the-21st-century/

Examples for Discussion… 5. An Operating System for the Mind 21st century skills constitute the processes and capacities that make it possible for people to navigate a fact-filled landscape, a way to see, understand and acquire those facts in such a way as to be relevant and useful, and in the end, to be self-contained.,.. http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2009/09/operating-system-for-mind.html http://positivebutterflies.com om/

Examples for Discussion… 6. 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive http://www.moskalyuk.com/blog/yes-50-scientifically-proven-ways-to-be-persuasive Fallacious tropes Inconvenience the audience by creating an impression of product scarcity. It’s the famous change from “Call now, the operators are standing by” to “If the line is busy, call again”, that greatly improved the call volume by creating the impression that everybody else is trying to buy the same product.

Examples for Discussion… 7. The Eggcorn Database 'guess workers' for 'guest workers' by klakritz 'beta breath' for 'bated breath' by klakritz 'alimoney' for 'alimony' by klakritz http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/

Stephen Downes http://www.downes.ca

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Speaking in Lolcats, Take 2

by Stephen Downes on Nov 24, 2009

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